As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is an information handling system (IHS). An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for such systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
For today's notebook computers and other portable electronic devices, their associated external power supplies must also be portable and be capable of operating under different load conditions. For example, different load conditions for an external power supply may exist depending on if a notebook computer is in standby mode, operating system (OS) idle or running a high performance application. Furthermore, different load conditions can exist depending on the charge level of the battery.
However, modern external power supplies are usually only optimized for power efficiency over a small range of load conditions. In other words, for certain load conditions, the external power supply may be relatively efficient while for other load conditions, it may be relatively inefficient. Furthermore, normal operation of an associated electronic device may not occur in the optimized range for the external power supply. For example, an AC adaptor for a notebook computer may be most efficient when operating at a 90% load rating, i.e., 90% of the maximum rated power output of the adapter. However, the notebook may rarely need such a high amount of power, and the AC adaptor may in fact frequently operate at a 10% to 20% load rating where it is much less efficient.
Current methods concerning external power supplies may focus on reducing power consumption when the external power supply is in an unused state. For example, if a notebook computer is switched off, an AC adaptor may be operable to reduce its power consumption since the notebook computer may need relatively little to no power. These methods, however, may not address increasing the efficiency of the external power supply while it is in operation.
Thus, a need exists for methods and systems for increasing the efficiency of an external power supply.